


Of All the Gin Joints...

by Curuchamion



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Missing Scene, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-28
Updated: 2011-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-16 00:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curuchamion/pseuds/Curuchamion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene for 1x01 "Emissary". Odo-centric. Massive spoilers for the pilot, obviously; falls right after Dax and Sisko decide they need to sneak out and take a look at the not-yet-identified wormhole.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of All the Gin Joints...

"So, Quark. I see you decided to accept the good Commander's offer after all."

Quark shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Who knows? Maybe the provisional government will hold together. The Kai Opaka did summon Commander Sisko to visit her yesterday, after all." He gave his patented you-heard-it-here-first-didn't-you smirk. "If she calls for unity and gets the leaders to listen, it'd be a shame to have lost such a prime spot on the Promenade."

Odo snorted. "Or maybe you just couldn't get anyone to take those dilapidated second-floor holosuites off your hands at a price you'd be caught dead accepting."

"A Ferengi is never too ashamed to take someone else's money."

"Whether or not he--"

 _*beep*_

Odo glared at Quark as if the interruption was his fault, and slapped his combadge. "Odo here."

"Odo, this is Kira. Can you come up to the Prefect's office? It's urgent."

"On my way." Odo shot Quark another dirty look on principle and stalked off through the bustling bar, avoiding three Cardassians and a drinks waitress on the way to the door.

********************************************

The Prefect's office was almost as crowded, for its size, as Quark's bar; when Odo entered, there were four people crammed inside a space designed for just two - one behind the desk and one in front. Commander Sisko sat in the former Prefect's chair; Jadzia Dax leaned half-sitting on the edge of the desk console; Major Kira stood behind Sisko to his left, and the engineer Miles O'Brien slouched against the side wall near the door with his arms folded. Odo let the door slide shut behind him and stayed standing in front of the desk facing Sisko, since that was practically the only unoccupied spot in the room.

"Hello, Odo," said Sisko in his overly hearty voice. "I'd offer you a chair, but there don't seem to be any."

"I assume there's a reason this meeting isn't being held in Ops?" Odo asked bluntly, ignoring the pleasantry.

"Too public," said Dax. "We don't want the whole station to know we're looking for the Celestial Temple of the Prophets."

Odo gazed at her for a second and tilted his head slightly, curious. "But you want me to know."

"Yes... I'll try to keep this brief. Commander Sisko had me examine the Bajoran monks' database of unexplained anomalies and disturbances in this area; they center around a spot in the Denorios Belt." Dax prodded a few buttons on the console and brought up a display on the small round screen behind Sisko. "Right here. We'd like to check it out."

"But," said Sisko, "we'd like to do it without the Cardassians knowing about it. And since they have a ship parked on our doorstep--"

"--we need to knock out their sensors long enough for a runabout to leave the station unobserved," Kira finished. Odo nodded; that was Kira, always the strategist. He knew she'd missed using her wits like this since the occupational forces left.

"But we can't do that from the station," explained O'Brien from his corner by the door. "It's not like jamming a subspace signal. We need somebody to get onto the Cardassian ship and reprogram their computers."

Odo restrained himself from rolling his eyes. _Not even three days. They've been here less than seventy-eight hours, and already it's "Odo, can you get through an air vent for us? Odo, can you turn into a Korbosian mule? Hey, Odo'ital--"_ he could still hear the contemptuous name in his mind-- _"do you still do that Cardassian neck trick?"_

"I already told them you can't shapeshift into a Cardassian," Kira's voice broke into his thoughts. Odo glanced over at her warm smile, and his eyes softened thankfully in return. With luck, nobody would ever tell the Starfleet officers about the Cardassian neck trick.

"But we were wondering," Dax added, "if you had any other ideas."

"Major Kira and I can teach you how to shut down the shield generators along with the sensors, so that we can beam you back off the ship," O'Brien said. "You'll just need to get yourself smuggled on there."

"This is ve-ry important, Mister Odo," said Sisko, still in that odd voice like a general giving a speech to his troops. Odo was beginning to suspect the man talked that way all the time.

Odo held up his hand quickly. "I'll do it, Commander," he said. He owed them one favor, after all, for Sisko's recent action in saving him from a life of complete and permanent boredom. And if what he had in mind worked out... "Chief, how long will it take you and the Major to teach me what I'll need to know?"

O'Brien shrugged. "About ten minutes, maybe?"

"Good. Meet me in my office five minutes from now. Major, be ready to shut down Quark's bar in... twenty-five minutes. Temporarily," he added in deference to Sisko's frown. "Just long enough to send the Cardassians back to their ship with their winnings."

"Are they winning?" asked Dax.

"They will be," Odo told her. "They'll be winning so much--" he smiled, grimly pleased--"Quark will have to lend them a bag to carry it all."

*****************************************

"What's in it for me?" Quark demanded.

"The goodwill of the Federation," Odo replied blandly. "...And if you're lucky, Major Kira might not find out about holoprogram 32-B until _after_ you've deleted it. You were going to delete it - weren't you, Quark?"

"Of course," Quark grumbled. "Right after I get on with losing this dabo game to the Cardassians." He stumped away across the bar, still mumbling.

Odo watched Quark walk off and nodded to himself, satisfied. Time to go learn some sabotage.


End file.
